Skuna River

The Skuna River is a tributary of the Yalobusha River, about 75 mi (120 km) long, in north-central Mississippi in the United States. Via the Yalobusha and Yazoo Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.

Course

The Skuna River rises about 4 mi (6 km) west of Pontotoc in Pontotoc County and flows generally southwestwardly through Chickasaw and Calhoun Counties, past the town of Bruce. Most of the river's course has been channelized, and it is also known as the "Skuna River Canal." It joins the Yalobusha River 6 mi (9.7 km) east of Grenada, as the north arm of Grenada Lake, which is formed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam on the Yalobusha. The Skuna has an average annual discharge of 620 cubic feet per second at Coffeeville, MS.^[1]

Name

Skuna is a name derived from the Choctaw language purported to mean "entrails, guts".^[2]

The United States Board on Geographic Names settled on "Skuna River" as the stream's name on February 3, 1926.^[3] According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known as:

Loosa Schoona
Loosa Shooner Creek
Schoona
Schooner
Scoona Creek
Scoopa Creek
Scuna
Shooner

Henry S. Tanner's 1848 map of Mississippi has the waterway labeled "Lussascoona R."^[4]

Thomas B. Ives's hand-drawn 1845 map of the waterways between the Mississippi River and Grenada, Mississippi has it labeled "Lussascona."^[5]

References

^ "USGS Surface Water data for Mississippi: USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics".
^ Baca, Keith A. (2007). Native American Place Names in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-60473-483-6.
^ USGS Geographic Name Information System decision card for Skuna River
^ Henry S. Tanner, Frederick Bourquin, and Samuel Augustus Mitchell, "A New Map of Mississippi with its Roads and Distances. By H.S. Tanner. Entered according to Act of Congress in 1836 by H.S. Tanner - in the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 23." (Philadelphia, PA: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1848). Available online in the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, list number 4578.024.
^ Ives's map is available in the Special Collections Department at McWherter Library at the University of Memphis, in the journal of Dr. John P. Hoggatt of Franklin, Ohio. Excerpts from the journal, including the Ives map, appear in the Notes and Documents section of The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Vol. 76 (2022).

External links

Grenada Lake

Sources

Columbia Gazetteer of North America entry
DeLorme (1998). Mississippi Atlas & Gazetteer. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. ISBN 0-89933-346-X.
U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Skuna River
U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Skuna River Canal

33°52′30″N 89°42′40″W / 33.8751°N 89.7112°W / 33.8751; -89.7112

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[1] "USGS Surface Water data for Mississippi: USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics".

[2] Baca, Keith A. (2007). Native American Place Names in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-60473-483-6.

[3] USGS Geographic Name Information System decision card for Skuna River

[4] Henry S. Tanner, Frederick Bourquin, and Samuel Augustus Mitchell, "A New Map of Mississippi with its Roads and Distances. By H.S. Tanner. Entered according to Act of Congress in 1836 by H.S. Tanner - in the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 23." (Philadelphia, PA: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1848). Available online in the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, list number 4578.024.

[5] Ives's map is available in the Special Collections Department at McWherter Library at the University of Memphis, in the journal of Dr. John P. Hoggatt of Franklin, Ohio. Excerpts from the journal, including the Ives map, appear in the Notes and Documents section of The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Vol. 76 (2022).

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